Sainsbury's

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Asda and Sainsbury's cannot attempt another merger for at least 10 years, the Competition and Markets Authority has confirmed.

Formally closing its investigation into the proposed tie up, it said the supermarket giants were legally bound not to join forces for a decade, which is the standard CMA prohibition period.

The ban also applies to US giant Walmart, which is not allowed to acquire any interest in Sainsbury's as long as it still owns part of Asda.

The CMA blocked the tie-up in April over fears it would raise prices for consumers. The deal would have created the UK's biggest supermarket chain, accounting for £1 in every £3 spent on groceries.

In its first quarter results, Sainsbury's said: "We reduced prices on over 1,000 every day food and grocery products and improved our relative performance."

But, it complained: "Retail markets remain highly competitive and promotional and the consumer outlook continues to be uncertain."

Retail watcher, Steve Dresser, had this analysis:

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Good news for customers of Sainsbury's Bank: it's back up and running after a short outage, according to a spokesperson.

Was anyone affected by the outage? Is it really back up and running?

Only you can answer these questions! Email us at bizlivepage@bbc.co.uk

Customers of Sainsbury's Bank have turned to Twitter to report problems accessing their account.

We've asked the bank for a response but in the meantime, are you experiencing any difficulty? Please let us know at bizlivepage@bbc.co.uk

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Mike Coupe, the chief executive of Sainbury's, has received a 7% pay rise to £3.8m after the collapse of the Asda deal because the competition authorities blocked the tie-up over fears it would raise prices for consumers.

Laura Lambie, senior investment director at Investec Wealth and Investment told Radio 5 Live's Wake Up To Money: "His performance has to be tied into what he’s paid for. It looks on the face of it as if he’s being rewarded for failure which is not good".

A year ago, Mr Coupe apologised after being caught on camera singing "We're in the money". He was filmed singing the words to the show tune as he was waiting to be interviewed for ITV News.

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The UK's big four supermarkets all lost market share in the 12 weeks to 19 May, market research company Kantar says, as discounters gained ground.

Tesco's share fell to 27.3% from 27.7% a year ago, while Sainsbury's and Asda had equal shares of 15.2%, after sales fell by 1.7% and 0.2% respectively.

Sales at Morrisons fell 0.4%, giving it a share of 10.4%.

Like-for-like sales were unchanged at leader Tesco and fell at Sainsbury's, Asda and Morrisons.

German discounters Aldi and Lidl continued to record strong growth, with sales up 11.1% and 8.5% respectively, giving them a record combined market share of 13.8%.

Sales at Ocado, Iceland, and Waitrose were also up on a year ago.

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The Competition and Markets Authority is proposing that any merger between Asda - owned by US retailer Walmart - and Sainsbury's should be blocked for ten years.

The proposal is outlined in documents published by the CMA following its decision to block the block the tie-up last month.

The CMA said the deal would raise prices for consumers, at the supermarkets' petrol stations and lead to longer checkout queues.

The competition watchdog is inviting comments by 5pm on Monday 24 June 2019.